Somehow I missed on Monday that Dan at Baseball Think Factory posted his Cardinals Zips projections. Here are the projections converted to wOBA first for the MLBers (all calculations use the PAs in Zips and a 0.335 league average for RAA calcs)

Player

wOBA

RAA

Albert Pujols

0.434

55

Matt Holliday

0.376

23

Lance Berkman

0.368

14

Colby Rasmus

0.344

5

Allen Craig

0.337

1

Jon Jay

0.326

-5

David Freese

0.318

-6

Yadier Molina

0.315

-9

Skip Schumaker

0.311

-11

Tyler Greene

0.297

-17

Ryan Theriot

0.294

-23

Gerald Laird

0.284

-16

and then for the MiLBers

Player

wOBA

RAA

Nick Stavinoha

0.315

-7

Daniel Descalso

0.317

-10

Mark Hamilton

0.320

-5

Matt Carpenter

0.318

-8

Bryan Anderson

0.311

-7

Aaron Luna

0.306

-11

Andrew Brown

0.300

-13

Daryl Jones

0.297

-17

Thomas Pham

0.301

-14

Adron Chambers

0.291

-18

Steve Hill

0.292

-17

Tony Cruz

0.291

-18

Pete Kozma

0.285

-28

Donovan Solano

0.276

-25

These tables highlight the folly of the Brendan Ryan for Ryan Theriot swap. Theriot projects to only hit slightly better than Pete Kozma. Let that sink in for a while. They also show the extreme lack of middle infield options, with Descalso posting the best wOBA projection.

The projection for Berkman is alright, but it is likely not good enough to overcome the defensive deficiencies. On the whole the offensive projections do not inspire a whole lot of optimism.

On the positive side, the projection thinks that if David Freese were to get injured again, Matt Carpenter could step right in and be a suitable replacement. As I’ve mentioned previously, that’s a sentiment I share. Bryan Anderson would be a suitable backup with that line, with some potential to be more. With the versatility of some of the bench options (Greene, Craig if he can backup at 3rd) would it be worth it to carry 3 catchers? Probably not, but it’s something to think about.